First Strike

by Richard Turner

A thick bank of ice fog hid the Kurgan positions. Even with thermal imaging binoculars, Sheridan knew that he would have to wait until the sun came up and burned off the mist before he could get a clear view of what was going on. His stomach rumbled. He handed off the binoculars to Garcia, crawled back, and slid down the back of the hill to join Cole and Roberts by their fire.

  Cole gave Sheridan a warmed-up ration. “So what could you see?”

  “Nothing, absolutely nothing,” was his reply.

  “Give it a couple of hours,” said Roberts optimistically. “There are no clouds in the sky. It’ll be a cool day, but you’ll soon be able to see for kilometers.”

  Sheridan looked up and saw nothing but bright blue sky. Letting go of his frustration, he opened up his ration pack and dug in. It was a concoction of greasy sausages and tasteless potatoes. Sheridan did not care; he was hungry and he ate his meal with gusto.

  A bird sang out. It was Garcia giving their warning call. Sheridan tensed, drew his pistol and flipped the safety off. Together with Cole, he made his way up the hill to where Garcia was on sentry.

  “What’s up?” Sheridan whispered.

  Garcia handed him the binoculars and pointed to a group of refugees who had gathered in the open.

  “What am I looking for?”

  “Sir . . . sorry, Sheridan, take a close look at the man in a long blue parka and dark green toque.”

  He adjusted the glasses and focused in on the man Garcia had pointed out. His stomach knotted when he saw Andrews, the man who had turned on them, chatting with the refugees. “What the hell is that slimy bastard up to?”

  Garcia said, “I can’t be sure, but I thought I saw some of the people point back toward Eve’s camp. I think he may be looking for us.”

  “Jesus, we can’t let him get his hands on Eve. I won’t allow it,” Sheridan said firmly.

  Cole reached over and placed a hand on Sheridan’s arm. “We won’t. He knows all of us, but he’s never laid his eyes on Roberts.”

  A minute later, without Tammy by his side, Roberts whistled a tune as he ambled back toward Eve’s camp. On the hill, Sheridan, Cole, and Garcia lay silent watching as the two men made their way toward one another. Only one, however, knew what was about to happen.

  Eve saw Roberts and waved to him. Roberts took a quick glance around. His quarry was nowhere to be seen. He quickly brought up his finger to his mouth, telling Eve to be quiet. His heart quickened the instant he spotted Andrews walk into the camp. He placed his hands in his pockets, his right hand wrapped tight around his silenced pistol.

  With a smile, Andrews dug into his pockets and pulled out several tubes of high energy protein snacks. “Good morning, folks, I’ve been looking for some friends of mine. I heard that they were seen in this camp in the past day or so. If you could help me find them, I’d be willing to give you one of these snacks.”

  “What did your friends look like?” asked Eve.

  “I can’t rightly say. However, you’d recognize them if you saw them. I heard one of them has a dog with him.”

  “If you don’t know how they look, how are they your friends?”

  Andrews smiled. “Okay, you got me. They’re friends of friends.”

  Roberts stood back, trying to look like he belonged there.

  The old man who had petted Tammy by the fire sat up and looked at the food in Andrews’ hands. “I saw a dog. The people you are looking for were here last night.”

  Andrews knelt down and gave the man one of the snacks. “Where did they go?”

  “One of them is standing right over there,” replied the man, pointing over at Roberts.

  Before Andrews could draw his concealed pistol, Roberts was on him. With a swift kick from his right foot, he sent Andrews tumbling to the ground. In a flash, he ran over beside the traitor and sent his foot as hard as he could into the man’s head, knocking him out cold. With his heart racing in his chest, Roberts reached down and disarmed Andrews, tossing his two concealed guns into the woods.

  The unexpected sound of a pistol’s hammer cocking right beside his head made Roberts freeze in his tracks.

  “Hands up,” warned a man behind Roberts. “Now, slowly turn around and don’t try anything foolish or I’ll blow your brains out all over the snow.

  Roberts gritted his teeth; he should have anticipated Andrews working with someone. He cursed his luck. Roberts turned around and saw a man dressed in dirty civilian clothes pointing a pistol at his head.

  “Who are you? And don’t lie.”

  Although deep inside his guts had turned to jelly, as calmly as possible, he replied, “My name is Roberts, and I’m looking for my younger brother. I thought this man was going to attack that old man, so I stopped him.”

  The man shook his head. “You unbelievers can’t lie to save your lives.” He stepped back from Roberts and raised his gun to fire.

  The attack, when it came, even surprised Roberts. With a loud snarl, Tammy dashed from her hiding spot in the woods and leaped up into the air, clamping down her jaws on the man’s outstretched hand. He howled in pain and tried to reach down with his free hand to take hold of his pistol so he could kill his attacker.

  He never made it. Roberts drew his concealed pistol and fired twice into the man’s skull, killing him. His body dropped to the ground. Roberts walked over, grabbed Tammy by the collar and pulled her back from the dead body. “I told you to stay.”

  Tammy canted her head to look up and barked at her friend. “Yeah, whatever,” replied Roberts.

  Eve walked over with a look of consternation on her face. “You had best go. I’ll see if I can get rid of the body. If not, I’ll say it was a robbery gone bad. Either way, you don’t want to be here when the Chosen come looking for their men.”

  “Thanks,” said Roberts. He patted Eve on the arm and then walked over to Andrews’ prostrate body. He got down on his knees and threw the body over his shoulder. With a grunt, he got back on his feet and began to jog away from the camp and back to where his comrades were waiting for him.

  “Tie him up and gag him,” ordered Sheridan.

  “I never thought to see him again,” said Cole. “What do you want to do with him?”

  “We’ll interrogate him when he comes to. Until then, we’ll continue to keep watch on the Kurgans and try to determine what they’re up to.”

  Andrews woke up a short time later, but Sheridan ignored him. Tammy sat patiently in front of the prisoner and growled menacingly if he tried to move. As the day wore on, it was evident that the enemy was bringing bridging equipment forward and pre-positioning for a planned river crossing.

  The cold winter day turned to night.

  With Garcia and Roberts on sentry, Sheridan decided that it was time to question Andrews. He took a syringe from Garcia, walked over, grabbed hold of Andrews and thrust the needle into Andrews’ neck. He emptied the syringe into Andrews before dragging him over to the fire. The gag was removed.

  “What the hell did you just inject me with?” asked Andrews.

  “I’m not sure what its scientific name is, but you know it as truth serum,” Sheridan replied.

  “You can’t do that, it’s against the laws of war to use drugs on a prisoner!”

  “So is murdering civilians, but I don’t see you up in arms about that.” Sheridan knelt down beside Andrews. He placed his lips near the man’s ear. “Now, Andrews, or whatever your Chosen name is, you can try to resist the effects of the drug, but trust me on this, you’re going to lose. I’ll leave you alone for five minutes to allow it to work on your brain. After that, you’re going to tell me what your friends are planning and how you managed to successfully infiltrate the armed forces back home on Earth.”

  The truth serum had been a last minute addition to Sheridan’s wish list of equipment they would need for their mission. It was hard to find, but Leon knew where to obtain some and did so willingly after Sheridan said that he would try to get his sentence reduced further.

  After mor
e than an hour of questioning, Sheridan looked over at Cole and said, “I think that’s it. Can you think of anything else?”

  Cole shook his head. “We’ve got what we came for and then some. The information on the Chosen infiltration of the military is going to give the counterintelligence boys at Fleet HQ nightmares.”

  “You’re not wrong there. We should get going.”

  “The prisoner?”

  Sheridan looked down at Andrews. “We can’t risk taking him with us and as much as I’d love to put a bullet between his eyes, I don’t think that’s really an option, is it?”

  Cole shook his head.

  “Okay then, strip him naked and tie him to a tree. We’ll let nature decide if he lives or dies.”

  Cole grinned. He roughly grabbed Andrews by the collar and hauled him over to a tall pine tree. He quickly tied him to the tree, gagged him and ripped off the man’s clothing. He stared deep into Andrews’ eyes for a moment. “I doubt they’ll find your body until it begins to rot in the spring.”

  With Roberts and Tammy in the lead, the team skirted the woods, avoiding any contact with the refugees as they headed back toward the tunnel entrance. At the pre-arranged hour, Sheridan cautiously made his way to the iron grate and checked in with the MPs who were guarding the passageway. He waved his team over. As they made their way back through the darkened passage, Sheridan wondered if the fleet was aware just how deep the Chosen deception had become. With no way to transmit the information off the planet, he hoped that the damage had not been too severe and that the armed forces would discover what was afoot before too many more lives were lost.

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